Wednesday, July 27, 2011

"Ringer"

Ringer Chapter 13 begins on page 69, and it is a set up for a new scene at an exclusive Hamptons beach lounge. Our protagonist Morty doesn’t appear on the page, and neither do any of the principal players, so it is not even integral to the primary and secondary plot lines. However, page 69 introduces us to the hulking bouncer of this lounge, Wilmer, who is an expert in ladies shoes. He needs to be in order to decide who can come in and who can’t. He can differentiate between Pay Less and Gucci cork wedges at a glance. Yet – as the page concludes – Wilmer is no wilting flower, he once threw a drunk Mike Tyson physically from the club. So while page 69 may not be a pivotal page that introduces a major character or plot twist, I think it is at representative of the sorts of characters and Morty’s dramatic narration – lightning “flutters” on the western horizon and the sea crashes on the beach with “briny exuberance.” Based on page 69 would a reader want to turn the page? I think at the very least they would do so to see if Wilmer is on the verge of tossing famous people out of the club. Or to explore the origin of the first line: “Let us cut away from the smoky confines of the palmist’s inner sanctum…”